Kiddie rides

A kiddie ride - or kids' ride - is a coin-operated amusement ride for small children. Kiddie rides are commonly available in amusement parks, arcades, malls, hotel game rooms and outside supermarkets and discount department stores. Less commonly, they may also appear in other venues such as restaurants, food courts, grocery shops and auto dealerships. When activated by a coin, a kiddie ride entertains the rider with motion, depending on the ride type (miniature Ferris wheel, miniature carousel, track ride or stationary platform ride). Most rides include sounds and music, and some feature flashing lights, pedals, and buttons. Commercial kiddie rides often use simple but colorful equipment, with the driving mechanism usually hidden under vacuum formed plastic covers.

The kiddie ride was first invented in 1930 by James Otto Hahs of Sikeston, Missouri. Originally called the Hahs Gaited Mechanical Horse, the ride was originally conceived as a Christmas present for his children. However, Hahs soon realized that he has a potential money-maker in his hands and set about commercializing the toy. Initially, he used wooden horses not unlike those found on carousels, and commissioned carousel makers to make the horses. However, he soon found these horses to be heavy, and decided that aluminum would be a better material to sculpt his horses out of. When told it can't be done, however, Hahs went ahead and invented a process to form horses out of aluminum. These rides would be manufactured at Hahs Machine Works in Sikeston, Missouri and went on to win several awards, including most original invention of the year 1932. In 1933, Hahs struck a deal with Exhibit Supply Company to distribute his horses, with a 5% cut going to Hahs. When the patent on the ride eventually ran out, Hahs had retired as a wealthy inventor. In 1953, Billboard magazine called it "1953's fastest growing business". Eventually, the rides changed from aluminum to fiberglass.

Many very old rides do not feature music; also, some vehicle rides may favor engine sounds instead of music. However, on rides that do feature music, early rides (and cheaper modern rides that imitate more well-known rides) are equipped with simple integrated circuits that continually play back one melody or repeat a set of melodies in sequence. These have evolved in the sense that the earliest musically-enabled rides played back only a single monophonic melody repetitively, while later ones played multiple polyphonic melodies, whilst sometimes including short sound or speech samples. Later rides could also use a tape deck, while more recent rides may have a solid state audio playback device akin to flash-based MP3 players. Usually the music chosen is generic children's songs, while on licensed rides the theme song for the character licensed would be used. However, in rare cases, there are rides that play standard pop music, and for private rides the owner may request a song that has personal relevance to be programmed into the ride.

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